Finding Family
by Dark.SKY27
Summary: Never had Desmond imagined that he would find a family in the place that changed his life. But he did. Now their bond would grow stronger each day while they help each other heal old wounds and uncover their dark past. A family fic. rated T for the Assassin's language.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi guys. So this is my second fiction and keep in mind that there's no Beta for this.. So tell me if you see any errors in there or something. **

**Hope you enjoy this because it took me a week to write this one chapter. And I hope this time I could finish this story without getting distracted. You know, short attention span and all...**

**So get on with the reading..**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Assassins Creed. Sadly. But I do own the Idea of this story! At least there's something..**

* * *

An Assassin.

That's what he is.

He was born into the Brotherhood.

Many had thought that he would follow his father's footsteps and dedicate his life into being one of the best assassins there is. Just like his parents. His dad was the Mentor of the U.S. Assassins and his mother was one of the best in her generation. So everyone's expectations were high. Especially his father's.

He was never a normal kid.

By the age Desmond could climb a tree or run without stumbling, they began his training. Which was pretty early.

He grew up surrounded by adults. People five times his age teaching him which part of the body are the most vulnerable and where to strike a killing blow.

"The neck. It's the most vulnerable part of the body and that's where you will drive your blade for the kill." One of the Assassins would say.

"When in the field, don't let them touch your neck, always be on guard, protect it or risk getting a fatal injury. Or worse. Death" His teachers said.

They always reminded him that there were only three types of people in the world.

"The Enemy. The Innocent. And Us." The Assassin would say as he looked down at Desmond with a serious gaze.

"But who is the enemy?" A very young Desmond would ask.

The Assassin's face darkened, "Templars." His voice was just a whisper but the contempt in it was not missed by young Desmond. The Assassin shook his head and his face returned to it's calm mask, "But that's another lesson you'll be learning in history when the Mentor sees that you are ready. For now let's practice on your knife throwing."

He had a knack for learning things fast. Absorbing everything they taught him like fish to water, so naturally that only drove them to push him harder. He was a prodigy that came once in a hundred years, he was a great weapon for the Brotherhood and so they didn't let the opportunity pass. Most kids his age would have cried or whined for being overworked. But not Desmond. He loved learning how to fight, loved the thrill that it gave. He loved the adrenalin that came with it.

But things changed when Desmond grew older and he learned more about the different sides.

Templars were the enemies as they seek to control the world and have humanity under their control. By what means? Something called the Apple of Eden.

And fighting against them were the Assassins, a group dedicated to safe guarding humanity's free will. The protectors in the shadows, so to speak.

Innocents were the civilians that had noting to do with the other two sides. Not even aware of their existence. They are the ones that needed to be protected.

That was what they kept repeating to him, reminding him everyday. He was an Assassin. The Templars were his enemies. And his purpose was to work in the dark to serve the light. Meaning, be a shadow, another face in the crowd, be anonymous.

It was getting annoying. It's not like he was going to disappear or forget, he had good memory.

That was his thoughts when he was younger.

But Desmond got tired.

Tired of being forced to be a part of the war between Assassins and Templars.

Tired of not having a purpose in his life other than serving the Order.

Tired of being treated as nothing but a _tool._

By the age of sixteen he ran away from the farm, the base of the assassins. Using the skills he learned from his training, he escaped and evaded every team that was sent to retrieve him.

He jumped from city to city, never staying in one place for too long and occasionally fighting the Assassins that were sent to get him back. This went on for nine years until he stopped in New York and worked as a bartender at a bar named "Bad Weather", his shift was from eight pm to two am. The pay wasn't bad. Enough to get him an apartment and supply his needs, which was not many so he had a bit more to save.

He was contented with his life as a normal citizen..

..But sadly everything has its end. And his was getting kidnapped by the Templars or better known these days as Abstergo Industry.

Forced into a machine called the 'Animus' to relive his ancestors memories. The Templars wanted something that only his ancestors know where, and they needed him to find it for them. The Ancestor he was forced to relive was a Master Assassin named Altair Ibn-La'Ahad. And through the Animus he not only lived the life of Altair but also learn his ways and found out what the Templars wanted; the Apple of Eden. An ancient treasure that was created by the 'Ones that came before'. Most of its power still remain a mystery, but what they do know is that it could be used to control people into mindless slaves.

After long sessions in the Animus Desmond started to notice subtle changes in himself. Not noticeable enough to anyone else besides himself. But it was still unsettling. Like how he walked as if he was accommodating a weight of a sword by his hip, or flicking his left wrist as if he had a hidden blade there, and there was this one time when he woke up one morning he was expecting to see the walls of the Assassin's Bureau in Acre but was surprised to be greeted with the sight of metal walls of his cell in Abstergo.

But He didn't think much of it. He'd seen some pretty weird things from his time getting kidnapped.

Then after a month with Abstergo he finally got rescued by the Assassins, not that he was expecting there would be someone to rescue him. There he met Rebecca Crane and Shaun Hastings, both were Assassins but not the fighting type, they were more tech and books, Rebecca was a technician while Shaun was a historian. With Lucy, the four of them escaped to one of the safe houses that the Assassins own.

That's where they are right now.

"Everything alright?" Asked Desmond.

"Better than alright, you're making amazing progress." Lucy said as she stood in front of Desmond.

Without turning around from the computer Shaun said, "Amazing's quite a strong word." He was at his own corner of the room seemingly ignoring everything around him.

"Then why are we stopping?" Desmond asked.

Its only been a day since his escape from Abstergo and currently he was sitting on the Animus 2.0, Rebecca's baby. He just returned from reliving a memory of Ezio Auditore, another one of his ancestors.

"Prolong exposure to the animus can have.. uh" Rebecca trailed of as she looked for the right word. ".. side effects."

"Heh, awesome." Came Desmond's sarcastic reply.

"It's nothing to worry about." Lucy reassured. "You haven't shown any of the symptoms."

"Symptoms? What symptoms?"

"Degradation of cognition, temporal hallucinations, multiple awareness issues, overlapping realities, you know." Rebecca explained.

"So, what you're saying is.." Desmond trailed of trying to make sense of it all.

"What we're saying, Desmond, is if you're not careful, you may not need the Animus to visit with your ancestors. Which wouldn't be a bad thing assuming you could control it. Up until now, though, no one has." Shaun said as he walked up to Desmond and put a hand on his shoulder but dropped it after a few seconds.

After that, Lucy asked Desmond to try out his new skills that he gained from the memory earlier to activate the defense system around the warehouse they were in. It turns out he's progressing faster than expected and mastered most of Ezio's skills that he'd relived in the animus.

* * *

A week passed since the escape before something catches the Assassins' attention.

"Well this is rather odd" Shaun announced from where he was looking at his computer.

The others turned to look at him, curious at what he found. Lucy sat in front of her own computer, while Rebecca was crouched behind her baby fixing it, and Desmond was on his bed and was resting from another animus session.

"What did you find?"

"It seems the Templars are pulling back most of their men in the search for us, or more specifically, Desmond." The Assassin on the bed rolled his eyes at that. Shaun was just jealous because Desmond had all the attention, not that Desmond wanted it in the first place. "and their patrolling patterns changed. I say this is a shock since they were getting close to our position."

"Well isn't that a good news?" Rebecca said

"It is. But also suspicious." Shaun replied.

"What could they be planning, that's the big question here."

Lucy looked lost in thought as the others discussed and made theories on the new development.

She was brought out of her thoughts by someone shaking her. "Hey Lucy you there? Snap out of it." Rebecca's face came into focus and she had her hands on both of Lucy's shoulders shaking her with every word.

"What?" She said once Rebecca released her.

"We've been trying to get your attention for the past 10 minutes now. What could you have possibly been thinking too deeply of?" Rebecca asked.

Lucy shook her head, "Oh it's nothing. So what did you say?"

Rebecca stared at her for a second but shook her head and decided to drop the subject. "Well me and Shaun found something." She gestured to the historian who was at his usual place in front of his computer, typing.

"What did you find?"

"Well, me and Becca managed to tiptoe our way into Abstergo's files and found a rather interesting news." He said as he swiveled his chair to face the two.

"What is it?" Lucy asked.

"It seems that the Templars found a Piece of Eden-" Shaun was cut off by Lucy.

"Is it an apple?"

He shook his head, "No. The file that we found was named 'Project Hourglass'. The file didn't contain much and everything else seems to be hush-hush."

"Project Hourglass?" Lucy said in wonder.

"Yeah. The POE that they found was literally an hourglass. Very old just like the rest of its kind. Nobody has any recorded data on it so we don't know anything about it." Rebecca said.

"But from the looks of it the Templars do." The Historian added. "We just can't access the information that we need. And forcing our way in would alert them of our snooping. And of course that would lead them to tracing the source and eventually finding out where we are." He said the last part with his usual sarcastic tone.

Desmond, who remained silent up to this point, finally spoke up.

"So is there a way to get those without them knowing?" The Assassin asked.

"Well Desmond, unless you're up for a suicide mission then no, there's none." Shaun's snarky reply.

Desmond just raised an eyebrow.

"What Shaun means to say is that there's no way to get those data without risking getting caught by the Templars." Rebecca explained as the Brit seemed annoyed about not knowing things.

"Tell me." Desmond's tone was serious.

The others looked at each other, unsure if they should tell him or not.

Finally, the technician answered. "Well a trip to Abstergo is needed and getting the information directly from their computer. An in-and-out kind of thing."

The Assassin was silent for a few minutes, deep in thought, then he got up from the bed and abruptly said, "I'll do it."

* * *

**And Chapter one is finished. I would like thank everyone who took the time to read this... Took me a week to finish this chapter because I have a _very_ short attention span. Seriously, I can't finish a story because I get distracted by other fics. Tell me if there are errors that I missed because this story has no Beta. A Beta-less story. **

**But I'd like to know what you people think of my story. Please leave a review and tell me if you like it or something. This is just my second time writing a story so I hope I get motivated by your comments so I could keep writing and maybe finish this story.**

**Review..**


	2. Chapter 2

**And Chapter 2 is up! Finally! Took me a while making this. Oh well...**

**So! I worked hard on this chapter and I hope you guys like it because I don't know what I'll do if you don't.. Maybe brood and lock myself in my room.. Oh wait, I'm already doing that right now. hmm, whatever..**

**So I hope you guys would enjoy this! Read on, my friends!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Assassin's creed.. Even though I wish I did..**

* * *

_"I can do it."_

Everyone was shocked by what Desmond said and everything went still and silent.

Finally Lucy was the first one to get over her shock and put on a stern face.

"Absolutely not! You're not going anywhere _near_ Abstergo or on this suicide mission! We're not risking you getting captured by the enemy."

"Lucy, you know that we need this information rather than ignoring it." Desmond said.

"No Desmond it's too dangerous. We can't take any chances on them getting their hands on you." Lucy argued.

"So what am I now? Just a prize to be won?" Desmond started to get annoyed.

"You know that's not what I meant, Des."

"Well that's how it looks like."

Lucy sighed and calmed down a bit, getting angry wasn't gonna help anyone.

"Look, Desmond, if the Templars capture you again it would be near impossible for us to get you back. The Assassins are spread thin and there's not many of us left. Plus not all of us are trained to fight like you."

Oh right. Different kinds of Assassins. Now a days they were trained for specific task like Technicians, historians or informants, and the fighters. But still the first ones were trained to defend themselves and fight back though not as good as the ones meant for it. The reason for this was that they needed to adapt to modern times. There were more technologies and so many histories and mysteries that the Assassins were forced to divide themselves for the jobs.

Obviously among Desmond's group Rebecca was the technician, Shaun was the Historian and the one who had his eyes and ears open for any significant information that would be relevant to the Brotherhood, and Lucy.. Well Lucy was a scientist with some knowledge of history and the coordinator of the team. Finally with Desmond being the fighter. They all have their own field of expertise. Their group were the standard team sent on group missions that required more than one Assassin or was too much for only one to handle.

Desmond sighed, calming down. "I get your point. But we can't just ignore this."

"But we don't even know if this Piece of Eden they have is worth sending you to their hands." She said as she stared into Desmond's glowing golden eyes. Lucy wondered if it always glowed intensely like it did at the moment.

"Yeah,we don't know. So what if it's something really important and dangerous to the Brotherhood? Plus, anything that's made by the first civilization is anything _but_ safe."

Before Lucy could open her mouth to protest Shaun cut her off.

"I never thought I would say this but the bugger is right." At the insult Desmond's eye twitched, but he said nothing. "Without knowing what we're up against is like fighting blind. We need to know what they're planning so we're prepared to either fight back or defend ourselves."

Seeing that she was outnumbered she turned towards the other female of their team, silently asking for her support. Sadly Rebecca shrugged and shook her head.

"Sorry Luce, but I'm with them on this one." She said.

Lucy sighed as she knew she wasn't going to win the argument. There was a tense silence in the room. Then after a few minutes she slowly but reluctantly nodded her head.

"Fine. But we'll be monitoring you in the van a few blocks from the Abstergo building and you won't be going until we get everything ready." Lucy stated.

Desmond gave a small smile and nodded his head to reassure her.

"So how long will the preparation take?" He would wait but he didn't wanna wait_ too_ long.

"Just give us a day and we'll get everything ready." She turned to Shaun and Rebecca and said, "Becca, I need a layout of the building and mark all the possible escape roots Desmond could use. Shaun, know all the patrol times and patterns and find the right time to begin the infiltration. And Desmond," Looking over to the mentioned man. "You should train the moves you've learned today to better get used to it."

"Oh great, the brute gets to play while we do all the work._ Fantastic_." Shaun's sarcastic reply.

"Hey shut up Shaun. In a day Desmond would be risking his life again to protect the Brotherhood. At least be nice before he goes on the mission. Besides, don't pretend you aren't happy that someone is getting us the information that we need to satisfy your curiosity." The technician pointed out as the Brit looked away and started mumbling to himself.

Then both started their usual banter as Desmond rolled his eyes at his friends' weird method of showing they cared.

Exiting the room, Desmond headed for the warehouse's ground floor where he always trained. He always loved the feeling of being high of the ground. Jumping from beam to beam and climbing up the walls. It felt like being free with nothing holding him back. It was the same feelings his ancestors got whenever they went up roofs doing free-runs, jumping from edges and catching themselves at the last moment.

Desmond made it to his destination and he stood in the middle of the room for a few minutes. Suddenly he sprinted towards the wall in front of him and running up it a few feet before grabbing a protruding part of the wall and adjusting his grip. His feet found foot-holds as he started to climb up the wall, getting higher and higher until he was forty ft., or so, of the ground. Grunting as he pushed himself off the wall to grab hold of the metal walkway on the wall, pulling himself up until he was balancing on the rail, looking over the room he was in. Then he jumped on a tall stack of crates near him and started running and jumping from one stack to the other as it filled the room. He moved with the grace of a skilled Assassin that had many years of practice and experience. His leaps were precise and calculated as body moved with muscle memory while his mind was somewhere else.

He was thinking of what to come. He had to be prepared for the infiltration-or suicide, as Shaun oh so kindly stated, mission he volunteered to do. Maybe it was the instincts of the two master Assassins telling him to protect the Brotherhood from the threat or his own desire to do so. But one thing was sure, "I will not fail." The promise was carried around the silent warehouse and soon became a whisper of the wind.

* * *

Silent buzzing and humming noises filled the crowded room while the people in it were all tense and busy with their various tasks. Wires littered the floor and were connected to various machines.

In the middle of the room was a metal examination table. A heart rate monitor and an oxygen tank was positioned beside it, both were on opposite side of the bed. A fluorescent light above the metal table was giving the people in the room a good look at the figure on the metal table. It was a young boy with short dark brown hair and looked to be at the age of 8. Maybe even younger by the peaceful look he had while he slept. And his mouth and nose were covered by the breathing masked that was connected to the oxygen tank.

"Sir, the experiment was a success!" One of the scientists that stood beside the metal table said.

"What are his stats?" The head scientist, a tall man that looked to be at the age of his mid-fifties, asked.

Then the room burst with activity as the people all scrambled to their designated computers doing what their superior asked.

"Subject's heart rate is stable, sir." One monitoring e heart machine said.

"Body becoming stable, sir. We can know for sure once the subject wakes up."

"Brain activity is also stable."

"When will the subject be regaining consciousness?"

"The knock out drug we gave him would wear off in 5 hours."

The head scientist was about to ask another question when the sliding door slid open. A bearded man in a lab coat came in.

"Have we made any progress?" He asked as he walked up to stand beside the examination table.

"Dr. Vidic!" The head scientist exclaimed, surprise evident on his face. He cleared his throat and quickly regained his composure are answered, "The project was a success, sir. All vital signs are good, brain activity is also normal. The subject would be regaining consciousness is 5 hours, sir."

Dr. Vidic nodded. "So this project wasn't a waste of money after all. At least there's some good news this week." he grumbled the last part.

"If I may ask. Why do we need him," The head scientist gestured to the still figure on the table. "If we already have subject seventeen's memories, sir?"

Vidic scowled and hissed, "There was a bug in the system that _deleted everything__!_" That was really unfortunate because it ate all the files they had on subject seventeen's memories. Including the map that the Assassin had uncovered that showed the locations of the rest Apples of Eden.

The others just stayed quiet, afraid to anger the man, and just waited for further instructions.

"When will the subject be ready to be put in the animus?" Dr. Vidic asked after taking a few calming breaths.

"Tomorrow, sir." The head scientist answered.

Vidic paused, "_What?_" He turned towards the man. "What do you mean tomorrow? We do not _need_ another setback. We are already _far_ behind schedule and we cannot waste another day!" Today just wasn't his day.

The Scientist shrunk back as he stuttered an answer. "S-sir, we are n-not sure of his mental state as of yet. We would need him to be awake to see if there are no mental trauma or any memory block that the experiment has caused."

"Can't you do something to quicken the process? We need him in the animus _ . _." He emphasized the last few words to show his point.

Dr. Laurence, the name of the head scientist, only shook his head firmly to his superior as he was in charge of the survival of their current experiment that was lying on the table, and he would make sure to do his job right.

"None, sir. Lest we want to have another subject sixteen on our hands I suggest that we wait to check our current subject's mental state before moving on in using the animus on him." Laurence's voice grew steadier until it was filled with determination that told Vidic that he was not backing down in the argument.

Vidic stared at him for what seemed like hours before shaking his head, letting out a loud sigh of frustration. "How am I to explain this to the Board of Directors that we need to move the deadline _once again_. They would surely not be happy to hear this news." Letting out another sigh before walking towards the figure on the table. "Very well then. I will talk with them while you work here and see if you can get things to speed up, if only a little, just so we can finish this and move on to the animus."

Looking over the still form of the boy with annoyed eyes before picking up a clipboard by the edge of the table and reading through its contents.

**-Subject eighteen-**

**Name:** Altair Ibn-La'Ahad

**Age: **(Physical) 8 years old, (Mental) Adult

**Born: **January 11, 1165

**Died:** August 12, 1257

**Place of Birth: **Masyaf

**Mother: **Maud

**Father: **Umar Ibn-La'Ahad

**Affiliation: **Assassins

**Rank: **Master Assassin

...

**Report:** Subject appears to be stabilized and healthy. Though not yet sure if his mental well-being is also stable, until the subject awakens, further analysis would be limited to physical checkups and information provided by the computers and other machines.

With the use of the Piece of Eden that we have recovered, we have managed to bring the Master Assassin, Altair Ibn-La'Ahad, to the 21st century. With much difficulty, we have change his physical form much younger than his mental thinking. He is basically an adult in an 8 year old body. We are not sure in what time we pulled him from as we are not in full control of the Piece of Eden, the Hourglass. The reason for putting him in a child's body is that we believe that once the subject would awaken he would try to fight and escape, so we decided that it would be best to put him in his much younger and weaker body as to make it easier to put him in the animus without much resistance.

Further observations will be added to the data once the subject is awake and tested.

When Vidic was done reading the file he glance again towards the boy on the table. It was still hard to believe that the... _child_ in front of him was an adult. Truly, when it comes to the First Civilization, laws of physics do not apply.

"Enjoy your little rest while you can, Mr. Ibn-La'Ahad. Because whether you like it or not, tomorrow you will be helping us find what we want."

* * *

**Done! I'm so happy that I finally finished this chapter. With so many things in my head right now I'm surprised that I even finished this just after a few days since I posted the first chap..**

**Sorry if there is not much exciting event in this chapter.. I'll work on it I promise! This was just to reveal a bit of what I have planned.. If I even have a plan -_-**

**Thanks to all those that reviewed and for your kind words because you're one of the reasons that I finished this faster than expected! Even though it didn't contain any action or whatever you still favorite this story.. Oh and tell me if I missed any errors or wrong spelling somewhere in the story, I don't have a Beta to help me..**

**I hope you will liked this chapter and keep on reviewing.. I may have a mild case of adhd... But I'll _try_ to focus long enough to make the next chapter.. You could help with your reviews! It makes me so happy to read them :D And it may quicken the process of the next chapter.. You'll never know..**

**Now I'm rambling and I don't know what I'm typing anymore.. **

**So my friends, Review please..**


End file.
